Olver has a powerful statement

Before I got on a plane last week to go to Colorado, I thumbed through the Internet looking for something interesting.

Yes, I can read with my thumbs using my telephone, or at least look for stories with my thumbs. It is sometimes necessary, but never as satisfying as reading a newspaper.

Anyway, I was thumbing around, reading the usual things, the latest news on the Kony video, Rick Santorum’s latest promise to ensure his morals run our lives and stories about iPad fans buying, surprisingly, iPads.

For those who are not familiar with these stories, Kony is some sort of warlord in Africa who was called out on the Internet by a video; Rick Santorum is a presidential candidate who is a lot like the bossy old great-aunt you remember as a kid; and iPads are computers that look like dinner plates but unlike dinner plates, you can watch the Kony video on them.

I was trolling through these stories when I was stopped dead in my trolling. There in front of me was a photograph of a celebrity being arrested for protesting at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

No, it was not somebody from a reality show. It was U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst.

Actor George Clooney, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, and most of the top civil rights leaders in the country were also arrested, but none looked quite as comfortable in cuffs as Mr. Olver. John has about as calm a demeanor as anyone I’ve ever met. I’ve seen him flustered a few times, but generally when you meet him he seems to be smiling and deeply pondering some complex problem at the same time.

In the photographs of the arrests, George Clooney looked a bit rumpled, giving the sense of having just hiked across the desert only to be arrested. Jim McGovern looked a bit intense. John Olver looked like he had just finished part of the day’s checklist: make bank deposit, pick up car at the repair shop, buy milk, get arrested at Sudanese Embassy, pick up pizza for dinner.

The congressman looked sharp as he was being led away. Walking down the steps of the embassy, he was wearing a suit coat, burgundy sweater, no tie and the exact same laid-back expression on his face you would expect to see if he was at the christening of a new wind turbine at a local college or announcing the awarding of federal transportation grants.

Of course John probably does not have to worry about getting put on a no-fly list because of his arrest or had to face the possibility of getting tear-gassed in the face like the Occupy protestors who had the audacity to complain about how Wall Street ripped off America. He knew going into the protest his arrest would be reasonably gentle, but give him credit for standing up for what he believes in.

And having John at the protest is probably a bonus for those hoping to convince the Sudanese government to act responsibly. If the Sudanese ambassador was watching the arrests on YouTube and saw George Clooney being led away in cuffs, he’d probably think, “Oh that George, he’s always doing some humanitarian thing. I wonder where he will go next? Maybe I can get his autograph.”

If he then noticed John Olver calmly walking away in cuffs, he would be worried. Celebrities draw attention to causes. When a distinguished lame duck congressman, decides one of his more important acts before retirement is to get arrested at your embassy, it might be time to phone the Janjaweed militia and tell them it is time to turn in their guns.

John will retire after this year’s election, but he will be missed. He may be one of the last true progressives and a guy who was always able to both focus locally, and on places like Sudan.